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The envelope, please Lakers' dominance deserves recognition
Posted: Sunday April 16, 2000 04:00 PM
NBA insider Stephen A. Smith of The Philadelphia Inquirer chatted with CNN/Sports Illustrated's Bob Lorenz about the goings-on in the league on Sunday's This Week in the NBA: Bob Lorenz: It's that time of year, time to hand out the awards. Let's start with most valuable player. You give it to Shaquille O'Neal -- was anyone else really in the ballpark? Stephen A, Smith: No, Shaq has been the most dominant force in the game all season long, and with all due respect to Kevin Garnett, there is no other candidate. So let's move on. For coach of the year, it was tough to pick between Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers, but I said to myself Phil Jackson has done a phenomenal job with 19, 20-game winning streaks. You can't say enough about the coaching job he's done this year, he deserves it. For rookie of the year, I give the nod to the Bulls' Elton Brand. He's been consistent all year. Yes, the Bulls are a horrific team but Brand comes to play every single night, he's undersized yet nobody can block his shots and he's averaging a double-double as a rookie. He's been more consistent than the Rockets' Steve Francis. Alonzo Mourning gets my vote as defensive player of the year because without him the Miami Heat are just a bunch of senior citizens. Alonzo is more active defensively than Shaq, and that's no knock on Shaq. My most improved player of the year is the Raptors' Tracy McGrady over the Pacers' Jalen Rose. McGrady is just a kid, he's 20 years old, he's leading the team in blocked shots, he's elevated his game to another level despite all the hype surrounding Vince Carter. Bottom line: McGrady is showing skills this year he had not shown in the past. We've always known what Jalen Rose could do. It's just that the Pacers held him back because they wanted Chris Mullin in the lineup for significant minutes. Bob Lorenz: We hear this all the time: Teams need a go-to guy. For the Blazers, who should that be? Stephen A, Smith: It should be Steve Smith. Yes, I know he has a name in common with me, but seriously speaking, this is a team filled with veterans -- they should know how to get it done. The fact is, unlike everyone else on this team, Steve Smith is the one player who has been the go-to guy on numerous occasions, in college at Michigan State and in the pros with the Atlanta Hawks, and has proven he can get it done. Everybody else has been a sidekick. So to me, he's their go-to guy and they should give him the ball at crunch time. Bob Lorenz: Grant Hill was limited to just 16 minutes Saturday night in a loss to the 76ers. He left the game with a sprained left ankle and was going to have it x-rayed Sunday. But if we look long-term, what's in the future for Hill? Stephen A, Smith: Right now if you ask Hill, he'll say his future is in Detroit, simply because he's been very pleased with the job interim coach George Irvine is doing. He feels Irvine has developed a rapport with the players and that he hasn't made any unnecessary changes. Grant Hill is happy with Irvine and has endorsed him. But let's be real, here: they've got to get some talent in Detroit -- they lost Bison Dele to retirement and never replaced him -- to complement Grant Hill if they expect him to stay past this season. Bob Lorenz: According to published reports, it looks as if there'll be major changes for the Nets this offseason. Two of the team's owners say there will be a housecleaning in the front office and a third source confirmed coach Don Casey will be fired this week. If that happens, who would be a good fit there? Stephen A, Smith: I don't know if this is a good fit, but you're going to hear Rick Pitino's name surface -- the Celtics may or may not let him out of his contract -- and the czar of the telestrator, Mike Fratello, you'll hear that name. I also think that Nets assistant Eddie Jordan would be a good choice, as would Larry Drew, an assistant in Detroit. Bob Lorenz: On Friday night Alonzo Mourning was held out of the Heat's starting lineup. Both Mourning and Pat Riley said it was a "non-story" --Mourning overslept, missed the morning shootaround and was punished for it. Simple as that... what do you think? Stephen A, Smith: I think they're absolutely correct. Alonzo Mourning's history shows that he's a consummate professional, he comes to work every single day. The man signed a $105 million contract years ago but he plays as if he were broke, starving for new paycheck every single night. And the fact that he was late, overslept, well, I think he said it best when he said he was human.
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